Topics in this article:

1. Organization of Falun Dafa

2. The protest in Beijing

3. Is Falun Dafa a cult?

4. Is Falun Dafa a religion?

5. Reports of practice of Falun Gong hurting people

6. Is Falun Dafa against science?

7. Is Falun Dafa involved in spreading superstition?
 
 

MY PERSONAL OPINIONS ON SOME OF THE RECENT ISSUES APPEARING IN THE WESTERN MEDIA REGARDING THE PRACTICE OF FALUN DAFA

I would like to share my opinion on some of the issues and questions that have been raised in the media recently.

1. Organization of Falun Dafa

I think that a lot of misunderstanding comes from the basic problem of looking at Falun Dafa practitioners in the collective and trying to interpret what they do on the basis of organizations that exist for other people. Those organizations are familiar and easy to understand. But Falun Dafa is done on an even more simple basis. The individual.

How does one begin the cultivation system known as Falun Gong? A person, for whatever reason (curiosity, health seeking, mention from family/friends) attends a lecture, an experience sharing conference, reads a book, explores a website - in whatever manner gets an introduction to Falun Dafa. He finds the things he encounters to be good and interesting. Myself, reading China Falun Gong was like remembering something I'd forgotten. Many people feel as if 'this is something I've been searching for all my life'.

With their interest sparked, they naturally try to reach out to others for more information. Perhaps they find a local practice site and learn the exercises or borrow-buy-download a video for the same reason. They are taught the exercises and are told that they should read the book Zhuan Falun again and again. As their understanding increases, questions are asked and responded to. Practitioners give each other encouragement to get through the difficulties that are involved in raising one's level. The real organization of Falun Dafa, however, remains at the individual - it is all dependent on his relation to and understanding of the book and his own cultivation experience. This is a critical issue to grasp when trying to understand many of the questions that have been asked.

But surely, practice sites are structured, maintained and organized. Not really. In my opinion, an aerobics practice site is more strictly organized than a Falun Dafa practice site is. Aerobics has a teacher who is in charge of everything including the organization for the session, teaches the movements and leads the practice. In my experience, there is no one like this at the Falun Dafa practice site. A practice site is simply wherever practitioners decide to gather to practice together. There is no leader, no position of instructor. If you must root out a leader, who are your candidates? The person who established the site? Who is he? Someone said "How about _______ park?" and others agreed. In the case of my local 'group', we found it convenient to use the porch of a local community center. Someone volunteered to contact the center to get the permission and to schedule a time. So he 'established the site'. Is he our leader? Anyone could do it. Well, then, candidate #2- who supplies the music? The mats you sit on? Someone got a hold of some carpet remnants and thought they would be good to use as mats and cut them up. One person lived close to the center and said he would bring them to the site each week. He lives closest and simply carries them. Because he needed to be counted on to attend most days (if he were bringing the mats), his wife said she would bring a tape player for the music. Are these the leaders? Anyone can do it. They were simply the ones who volunteered - it was convenient. Well surely the person who greets newcomers and teaches them the exercises and lends a book is important. Why so? Frankly, different people do this at different times. Normally, we are eager to share Falun Dafa with someone who approaches us. We do these exercises every day - they are quite simple. Who would be unable to teach them? Usually there are extra books. If not, the person can borrow mine. It's not a problem.

We enjoy practicing together. I find it easier to do it in a group. After all, why do aerobics people gather together? Once they learn the routines, isn't it easier to do it at home without travel? Well, no. The group inspires you. I'm sure aerobics are easier to do in a group. It's not so different for Falun Dafa, although plenty of people elect to do the exercises at home anyway. What's the difference? There are no 'requirements' to come to an exercise site. The only requirements are the requirements of cultivation and those are all internal: striving to be a better person, getting rid of bad habits and attachments to things around you. If you can do it, you are a practitioner. If not, all the meetings and group exercise you do are meaningless. Yes, we do have to agree on a time if we wish to practice together. It is no more than you and I would have to do in order to meet for lunch. We have to be organized enough to show up at the same place at the same time. Does that make us an organization?

Experience sharing conferences take a bit more organizing than practice sites but it is really just the same thing on a bigger level. Someone volunteers to book a room. Someone volunteers to get the word out "where and when". "Who would like to come?" Perhaps you would like to share some of the experiences you've had in your cultivation - it may help others. Ok, many people do so. Many more never do. Who attends? Whoever wants to. Transportation and hotels are arranged individually just as you would do it.

The teacher Li Hongzhi is usually invited to attend these conferences. Sometimes he is able to make it, sometimes he isn't. We all look forward to listening to his lectures and anytime he does attend and agrees to lecture he is definitely the keynote speaker. But it actually is not his meeting - it is the practitioners' meeting. They got it going. Many practitioners will speak and usually the things they have to say are very moving and powerful.

These experience sharing conference are actually simple things. Do you recall the blizzard of '98? The biggest snowfall in 40 years hit Chicago on the day of our local experience sharing conference and no one showed up to unlock the hall we had arraigned for! We simply found another locale (the reception room of a Holiday Inn, I think it was) and we just went ahead with our meeting. So these things are all done individually and simply. Someone may think, "Hey, I know the city pretty well. Maybe I should make a map so people can find restaurants during the break". Practitioners often think of others, but there's no committee involved in that. Someone just has a thought and does it. No more difficult than organizing your garage sale. You put up a sign and spread the word. People show up.

2. The protest in Beijing

(It's easy to organize one person)

Well then, who organized those 10,000 at ZhongNanHai in April,25th? One paper found it mysterious that the 'Falun Dafa leaders took such a politically risky step' as the rally at ZhongNanHai. That might be a valid analysis if it were done in that way but the truth is that there were no leaders to make such a 'misstep'. No one was planning a strategic (or un-strategic) move.

What needs to be understood is that practitioners work on their cultivation everyday. They strive to improve themselves. They do the exercises and read the books. They have found it to be extraordinarily good. They feel the more people that can follow this cultivation way the better it would be. They have felt the sweet freedom that follows when an attachment is abandoned. Their hearts have been moved in a profound and personal way. So when they found Dafa being slandered and misrepresented in the media they wanted to see it corrected. They wanted to give their own perspective. They felt sure it would be so easy to correct.

Can we imagine one person saying "Well, I can't appear on TV or get a news article published. I feel very strongly about it. I'll just go to give my opinion."? If we can imagine one, can we imagine two? Why not three individuals thinking this way?

Where those who are genuinely perplexed by it get tripped up is in the number 10,000 itself. One, two, three - ok. But 10,000, that needs to be coordinated; planned. But why so? I really am talking about individuals making individual decisions. Yes, there were a lot of individuals in ZhongNanHai, but there are a lot of individuals in Dafa. Quite a lot. Most did not go. If they had leaders that were coordinating them to make a grand statement, would we expect only 10,000? Let's look at it a moment. The reports say we claim 100 million practitioners. We have seen in the oppression that followed ZhongNanHai and continues now that practitioners have been willing to subject themselves to detention, arrest, beatings and physical abuse. They have demonstrated their willingness to lose their jobs, education, social standing and economic security for their principles. With such fierce loyalty to Falun Dafa, if they had leaders orchestrating a grand movement, a big, politically bold move to make a grand statement, would we expect to see a mere .01% of this determined 'membership' to turn out? Wouldn't an orchestrated movement allow time for non-locals to arrive for the event? In my opinion, .01% showing up to make a statement for something that so upset those people indicates that there definitely was NOT an orchestrated campaign.

Still, people have trouble imagining so many people going to ZhongNanHai on their own. Could they really have made that decision independently? A practitioner from New York gave an example that may help. She reminded me that in 1980, spontaneous gatherings cropped up all over the country, in Europe and in many other parts of the world to rally for the slain John Lennon. They appeared with banners, drawings, candles, music and memorabilia. Who organized this? What committee dispatched them? Who distributed the photos and records they carried? We know, of course, these were people spontaneously following their hearts. Such was ZhongNanHai.

Well, the discipline at ZhongNanHai was described as being higher than the official police on the scene is. This takes training. Yes, it would take extensive training to get a large crowd that disciplined. But, what if each individual had been disciplining himself every day for years - Learning principles and improving himself until he had let go of those emotional responses, learned to consider others before himself, trained to be a better and better person? Falun Dafa is a serious thing. Every one of those people were simply manifesting what they had learned in Dafa, following the principles that have moved, improved and elevated them. They manifest these characteristics every day - in their homes, workplaces, schools... and at ZhongNanHai. If we really look at it, it is not so hard to understand. It is much easier for an individual to be disciplined than a crowd. This was a crowd of disciplined individuals. No traffic was disrupted, no slogans were chanted, no banners or signs were waved. They not only picked up their own litter; they picked up the cigarette butts the policemen flicked. Does this sound like a political protest?

3. Is Falun Dafa a cult?

I understand why this question is brought up. It comes from not knowing. I would ask everyone to withhold judgments prior to looking examining things. When I first approached Falun Dafa, I kept in mind the possibility that the group I saw could be representing anything. This did not prevent me from approaching but I did so cautiously. I kept a close eye on things and watched and listened to the practitioners. I saw only good things from the beginning and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop - waiting to see when the 'catch' would come. We know it is common for spurious groups to show a good face upfront and for the tricks to reveal themselves later. This just never came. The good things I learned in the beginning were never jeopardized. The basis and foundation of Falun Dafa are the same things that are present in its extensions; the high levels and the veteran practitioners all solidly manifest the principles presented from the beginning.

I have no problem with people coming with some suspicion or skepticism. My own beliefs are based upon my personal experience and I have found Dafa to be very open to scrutiny. I just ask the public not to casually tag these good people with such a dirty label.

I have made some study of cults in the past. There seem to be a few characteristics that stand out for all of them. I have Falun Dafa to be exactly opposite to cults in these regards.

The first issue that usually crops up in cults is that of money. Cult members are pressured to bring in money by raising funds and from their own homesteads. The results are catastrophic for their families and friends. Falun Dafa is not involved in any of these activities. No one is asked to donate anything. No one raises and funds, money is not exchanged. Our practice is very simple and doesn't require any material resources. If we attend an experience sharing conference out of town, we will often travel together and share hotels. At the end of a trip, travel and lodging expenses are often paid on one account for convenience. Great care is taken that everyone pays only his or her own share and that no one has finished with any profit. If someone overpays it is not accepted and the overage is returned. It is done the way you would expect to do when traveling with friends you trust explicitly.

There are some materials that are often used in Falun Dafa that may be purchased by practitioners if they wish. They are ordinary and actually quite optional when it comes to purchasing them. The most important of these are the books. There has been a lot of criticism of Master Li because of the sale of books. I find it ridiculous - Stephen King is never criticized for selling books. We understand and fully expect someone to make money if they have published a successful book. However, I'd again like to share my own experience and to demonstrate my opinion that if Master Li has created Falun Dafa in order to trick people and is doing it for the purpose of making money from it then he is doing so in an extremely inefficient and foolish manner.

The books are "China Falun Gong" and "Zhuan Falun", with "Zhuan Falun" being the primary text. Every practitioner must read "Zhuan Falun". However, it is not necessary for each practitioner to buy it. A beginner approaching the practice site will be loaned a copy. If he becomes interested in practicing Falun Dafa he probably wouldn't be asked for its return (although this would be up to the person who loaned it - it is just that practitioners are usually very generous and are happy to see someone's interest develop - the question of property of the book isn't an issue to them). If the new person decides he is not interested in Falun Dafa, he is asked to return the book. It was not necessary for him to buy a copy in order to find out he was not interested. This would never happen in a cult or even in most ordinary organizations.

The interested borrower usually returns it anyway. He then may buy his own copy, borrow one from a library or even download a free copy from the Internet. It's not necessary to buy one at all. I had no Internet access and someone downloaded and printed a copy for me and would take no money for it.

I decided to buy my own copy of both books. I have a large number of books at home and I had no problem in buying "China Falun Gong" and "Zhuan Falun". However, I know the price usually charged for martial arts books, Tai Chi books or meditation books are usually higher than 'regular' books- often much higher. But I didn't mind. I was surprised, however, at the price I paid. One practitioner had extra copies he kept for new folks and he sold them to me I paid six and seven dollars respectively for the two books. I felt that to be at least half of the fair market value of 'regular' books and easily one third of what I would expect to buy martial arts books for. "Zhuan Falun" is more than 390 pages long and my copy had been imported from Hong Kong. These people obviously were not after my money. Production, publication, import, all of the various people that have to be paid percentages, etc. when a book is published and distributed - what large profits was Master Li taking? I'm sure you would agree that he could have taken more and it would be completely reasonable simply on the business level.

There is an exercise video available. The copy I have is a dubbed duplicate. It was copied at the suggestion of the practitioner who loaned it to me. Later, I saw them sell the official release of the video to an out-of-town couple that was anxious to have it. The price was four dollars. It came in a professional plastic case with a color insert. I remember wondering how they were clearing the material expense. There obviously was no profit in it. Have you ever priced a kung fu or Tai Chi instruction video? Kung Fu videos are often even as high as sixty dollars or more. Twenty at least - what does it cost to learn Tae Bo? All instruction in Falun Dafa throughout the world is free. Does Master Li live on the royalties of his books? I hope so. Certain economic newspapers have speculated on what the income is. As I see it, if there are indeed 100 million practitioners and they all had a book, even if Master Li had fifty cents from it, it would add up to a lot. But how is this a point of criticism? No one is persuaded to buy anything and the materials are available for free. If you decided to take up Falun Dafa and didn't wish to spend a penny on it it is completely possible to do so. No practice site in the world collects any money - no fee, no donations accepted. This is a lousy way to run a business - a great way to run an upright cultivation practice.

Another feature evident in cults is the preoccupation with recruitment as well as the isolation of its new members. Practitioners are very interested in getting the word out about Falun Dafa. What does this mean? Simply, they want to let people know there is such a cultivation practice known as Falun Dafa or Falun Gong. They mention there is a book called "Zhuan Falun" by Li Hongzhi and that it teaches good things. They have found the practice to be exceptionally good and leading them to higher understanding and positive results manifested in many ways. So they wish to share it and get the word out. But getting the word out does not include coercion or even persuasion. A book to read, exercises to learn - the rest of Falun Dafa is up to you. Practice with a group, fine. Practice at home, fine. Read with the group, read at home - all the same. I think it is very good for beginners at least to be in contact with an experienced practitioner as there is often interference when someone begins a serious cultivation form. But it's generally up to the beginner to establish this contact - asking questions, etc. If you've borrowed a book from someone and they haven't heard from you, they may call to ask if you're finished with it; please return if you're not interested in reading it. But you will never find a practitioner showing up at your door, your workplace, calling you on the phone telling you why you should be interested. Cultivation is up to you - no one can do it for you and no one can persuade or convince you into enlightenment. It is nothing so cheap! If you can do it, great. You will find there is support. If you cannot, how can I push you to do it? In fact, it would be detrimental to my own progress if I were to push someone to do something they didn't want to do or drag someone to a site they didn't want to go to. As a simple example, how could anyone meditate if they didn't want to? Wouldn't it be impossible? It's up to you to decide to do it. Falun Dafa is also like that.

No practitioner is under any pressure, guidance, encouragement or reward to bring in or recruit other people. We don't do it. You can 'hear' the Fa (law of the universe) or you can't - that's your own business. We certainly want people to know it is available to them, but that's it. Also, practitioners are not isolated in any way. We do not leave our normal environment or undergo an 'indoctrination'. When we are introduced to Falun Dafa and as we progress in cultivation, we do not leave our families, our schools or workplaces. What would be the purpose? For an upright system, there is none. Everything in Falun Dafa is in the open. Our principles are described in the book. Our practice sites are open. There is nothing hidden. I have found the openness to be quite remarkable.

I promise you that if you are approached for money or pressured to do or say something against your will for the sake of Dafa, it is not a genuine Falun Dafa site or practitioner. We simply do not behave this way. If you tried to pay them they would not come close to accepting.

I understand why someone who knows nothing about Falun Dafa may think it could be a cult. Anyone who looks closely at what we believe and how we behave will not reach such a conclusion. There has been a lot of propaganda and lies spread about Falun Dafa recently by the Chinese government. I appeal to everyone to investigate before accepting these misrepresentations.

4. Is Falun Dafa a religion?

I realize a church is not a requirement for a religion. But religions do have ritual, worship, especial observances, sacraments, etc.

The only thing resembling ritual is the exercises we do and that no more qualifies as a ritual than are the stretches one does before aerobics. Believe me, you'll find more ritual at a baseball game than in Falun Dafa.

There is no deity offered for worship in Falun Dafa; not even a personality to follow. This probably surprises a lot of people who will point out Master Li Hongzhi, Master Li tells us that he is not a figure to be worshipped, nor does he present any deity for us to follow. Instead, we 'follow' the Fa. "Master" is a respectful title for the teacher. Throughout Asia, one of the most respected members of society is the teacher, irrespective of the subject. Master Li is indeed a profound teacher and is highly respected and revered, but he is not worshipped. It is the teachings, the principles, that teach us how to elevate ourselves to higher levels. Progress is made by the practitioner according to how well he can cultivate himself. Dafa could possibly be summed up as showing how people can cultivate THEMSELVES to higher levels.

In martial arts, it is typical to bow to the portrait of the master when entering the practice area or school. No one considers Aikido, for example, to be a religion although the master is revered.

It looks strange all of you carrying around the same books. That sight shouldn't seem strange. We are students. The same thing happens in every college classroom in the country. Those books cost more, too. But religious texts teach people how to worship a deity. Zhuan Falun teaches us how to improve ourselves. It is centered on the cultivator, not a distant god. It does teach us high level principles and answers questions so many people have never found the answers to anywhere else - including religions. In my personal experience, I've found a tendency in religions to 'resolve' the sticky issues by appealing to faith. Faith is an important component in religions, so this is not necessarily a criticism. Yet, Zhuan Falun gives a concrete guide to cultivation. The reason we read it over and over is because it is a subtle and profound book. As we reach higher levels of understanding, the book reveals higher principles. It has been compared to a ladder and reading the book each time is like climbing up another rung.

We have no temple in Dafa; no priests, no objects of worship, no ritual, no consecration. The book outlines the principles of cultivation. Each person follows them or not. There is respect for the master but it is the principles of improving ourselves that we follow. Embracing empathy and compassion for others, putting our personal interests behind other, improving our morals, getting rid of bad habits, interests and habits. These principles have helped us, enriched us, elevated us and liberated us. Thus we continue to follow them.

Recently people have tried to draw comparisons of Falun Dafa to Christian Science upon hearing reports that practitioners do not take medicine. It is true that most practitioners do not take medication. I do not, many others do not either. Why is this? One thing that we cultivate is gong, which is a dense form of energy; a kind of high-energy matter that is found in the universe. One cannot cultivate gong with an ill body. I have felt this energy - I do not consider myself to have any illnesses. Why would I take medication? Do you at this moment feel that you are ill? If not, would you consider taking medication? Why should you?

As to Christian Science, I really cannot comment on their religion as I know little about it. Normally I would not make comments or comparisons - especially as that is a religion. But the comparisons have been made in the media lately and I think they can lead to a better understanding of Dafa so I will talk about the differences on this issue as I understand them.

I know the major criticism of Christian Science in the last several years is that babies and small children have died because their parents had refused medical attention when it was needed. A child had a treatable condition that was neglected and so he died. Initially my reaction is that the situation is completely different. If you have a disease, take the treatment. If I am convinced that I don't, I do not take a treatment. This is a simple idea. But I realize that the problem is that the child is not in control of the situation and is not in any position to reason or decide anything. This is what made people angry and it is precisely this that points out the difference to Falun Dafa on the most fundamental level.

Dafa is completely different; I refer you back to the comments about an individual making his own choices. Personally, I agree with the critics of the above situation of the child. What position was he in? What say did he have? But the real concern is at a deeper level. I've never understood why religions indoctrinate infants. Does a six-month-old understand what is happening when he is being baptized, for example? Being indoctrinated into a religious faith should be the most solemn of occasions, entered into with sincerity and understanding. Infants are in no position to make a testament of faith or comprehend much less follow the serious principles of the religion they are made members of. This is not really a criticism; it is something I just never understood but I think I understand my own position after learning how Falun Dafa works.

Dafa has no ceremony or such set of beliefs. We believe each person is an individual who can follow cultivation or not based on his own understanding and ability. How could we expect a two-year-old, for instance, to do so? He is not able to understand the seriousness or implications involved. As a parent, I could not consider my child to be a practitioner. When he is old enough to read the book he can do so. He will be just as free to make his own decisions as you or I regarding cultivation. In some households of practitioners, there are whole families who practice. In many others there are practitioners and non-practitioners. We understand that cultivation can only be done in a free and open situation. We do not indoctrinate and we do not recruit. Even within our own families, we simply offer the chance for someone to know that Dafa exists. We will not coerce, cajole or persuade anyone to do anything. Practitioners choose to cultivate themselves with a clear mind - this is the precious heart we value. So my child's path is his own to take. I will raise him in an environment of truth, compassion and forbearance. I would hope that it prepares his heart to live a life open to the highest standards of virtue and kindness, to be unselfish and principled. But the decision to cultivate is up to him and I cannot push him or decide for him.

Before he is of the age and maturity to understand it, I cannot consider him a practitioner. If he becomes ill, then, will I take him to a doctor? Of course. It would be wrong for me to refuse treatment for him. If you begin cultivation in Falun Dafa and feel that you are ill, would we prevent you from taking medication? How could we prevent you from doing anything? Can I force you to change your heart or to become a better person? How can I touch what is in your heart? That is for you and your own understanding. So I would not and could not prevent you from taking medication.

It is true that many people experience an initial period of physical discomfort when beginning Falun Dafa. This is not sickness; it is your body's systems being cleaned out and purified. We can tell you generally before it happens - is it then a virus that comes when you first read the book, or is it something else? Practitioners know from experience the manifestations of being cleaned up. I would advise you not to take medication for it because I do not see it as an illness at all. If you disagree, however, you are free to do whatever you decide to do. What reaction would you expect from me? Will I lock you up? I'll simply explain to you the principle as I understand it. If you feel you are really sick, see a doctor. This is the advice in the books from Master Li and practitioners do not contradict it - we agree with it. Yours is up to you; mine is up to me.

I like the idea of being free from illness. If I manage it in my lifetime, I hope you would be happy for me.

There is no restriction for taking medication, but almost no experienced practitioner does it. It simply is not necessary. However, in Falun Dafa we do not use herbs, stimulants, traditional potions, balms, roots, extracts, oil, etc. that are common in martial arts or other cultivation methods. That too, however, is up to you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

5. Reports of practice of Falun Gong hurting people

The Chinese government recently has been conducting a massive campaign of misinformation, broadcasting a lot of rumors, mutually contradicting stories, innuendo and bold lies. It is important to realize the level and extent to which the government has attacked the reputation of Falun Dafa. They made it a priority, producing films that were broadcast nonstop for weeks, encouraging negative testimonials (with no check whatsoever if the person even had anything to do with Falun Dafa), even producing comic books slandering Master Li and Falun Dafa. That's ok and I'm not going to take up the space here to detail the campaign. But some of the 'cases' they bring up have been mentioned in the western media so I should discuss my understanding of them.

One strict requirement for practicing Falun Dafa is that a person must be able to control himself. He must be able to understand where he is and what he is doing at all times. There must be a mental alertness and awareness. People with mental disorders are not allowed to practice. Why? The principles of cultivation are completely integrated. They are not arbitrarily drawn. Cultivation is not easy but you must adhere to the principles if you are not to go wrong. Cultivation is serious; a mentally ill person is not in a state that allows him to be strict with himself. Thus there is a rule that he is not allowed to practice Falun Dafa and is not considered a practitioner of Falun Dafa.

Yet, all Falun Dafa materials are freely available (as they had previously been in China) - how could someone be prevented from buying books and attempting cultivation according to his own understanding? The materials are not kept behind an iron gate. There is no organization to 'withhold membership'. So someone with a mental illness might indeed pick up a book.

But without being mentally alert and unable to control himself, he is sure to go astray. To enlighten requires self-improvement; to improve necessitates change; change requires self control otherwise the change would be chaotic. How do you guarantee you will change for good if you are not in control? Of course, someone with mental illness is in a chaotic state before ever hearing of cultivation. Psychiatry says that the only generalization regarding schizophrenia is that the behavior is totally unpredictable by anyone. We are not antagonistic about people who are in such a state - it is just a sad fact that they cannot meet the requirements of Falun Dafa cultivation and thus must be helped elsewhere.

The stories spread by the Chinese government represent people who fully and utterly violate the deepest principle of not only Falun Dafa but society of any civilization. The story of an individual who killed his parents is serious enough to merit responsible investigation instead of just casually being spread. What was his condition before he claimed to be a practitioner? Did he mix in elements from other cultivation systems? What is the whole story? Master Li teaches that doing something that hurts another person is very costly to practitioners. A practitioner must not do this - killing is a most serious offense and is absolutely prohibited in Falun Dafa. All societies agree with this, but we are discussing Falun Dafa. Anyone even remotely familiar with Falun Dafa would know that hurting someone intentionally and killing someone is totally opposite to Falun Dafa. How could someone who did this be considered a practitioner of Dafa? It is in total opposition.

Master Li teaches that suicide is totally forbidden in Dafa and is an affront to heaven as well as harmful to all those associated with the person. So the government says "here is a suicide, he was a Falun Dafa follower". What kind of "follower" violates such a principle? He directly violates a principle that anyone, Dafa practitioner or not, should understand. How can he be a "follower" of principles while he being known because of his violation of such principles? If he were a Falun Dafa practitioner he would not have done it and it is exactly opposite to what we learn. How can you blame Falun Dafa? A person with mental illness is expressly not allowed to practice Falun Dafa but there he goes anyway. Can Master Li be responsible for him? Do you blame the post office when an employee kills someone or do you understand that the person was unbalanced to begin with?

If you violate the rules of an organization, religion or club you might not be considered a member of that group. If you violate a serious rule of society you are imprisoned for it and are no longer considered to be a member of that society. Falun Dafa, as a serious practice, has some serious principles to pay attention to. Even these, however, are up to the individual person to decide to follow them or not. But if they decide not to, how can they be considered practitioners of Falun Dafa? Understanding the principles is one of the essential aspects of Falun Dafa. They are not considered to be practitioners, and those unfortunate people with mental disorders were not considered practitioners even from the start.

When people are free to make individual choices, some irresponsibly people may make irresponsible choices. Yet, when the choices are completely opposite to what cultivation practice teaches, the cultivation cannot be blamed. Isn't it reasonable? A teacher teaches, the student chooses to do the opposite. Do you point your finger at the teacher or the student? This should be easy to see - the Chinese government seems to hope people will accept what is presented without giving any thought to it. To me, it is a shame that such stories have in certain cases been repeated in the west in just that fashion.

6. Is Falun Dafa against science?

This is one of those mutually conflicting reports coming from China. They accuse us of being simple-minded, superstitious and afraid of science and technology. At the same time, they criticize us for 'being organized on the internet' and for spreading Falun Dafa on the Internet. Many websites have been created by practitioners; most of them are quite good.

Of course, then, we are not against science and technology. In my family, neighborhood and circle of friends I am considered well educated. But my education is very low on the scale when compared to my fellow practitioners in my local practice site. They include physicists, chemists, engineers, computer programmers and developers and mathematicians all on Ph.D. programs or with degrees - I am amazed at the level of some of the projects and research that they do. I must say Falun Dafa practitioners are neither afraid of technology nor are they simplistic or naive in these issues.

7. Is Falun Dafa involved in spreading superstition?

This issue may seem a little strange to a westerner. In China, the charge of 'spreading superstition' is a politically loaded charge. Under that banner, campaigns against particular groups have launched by the Communist Party in the government. The tag can be applied with an eye on political interests. It is not necessary to detail the political implications; it is enough to note that a vicious campaign against Falun Dafa has been initiated and has been run with the full authority, backing and force of the government.

It may be useful, however, to discuss the issue among westerners as some non-political issues sometimes are raised. There may indeed be components in Falun Dafa that seem mysterious at first, but they are essential parts of an integrated and highly cogent system. Once the practitioner begins to understand each component within the context of the complete cultivation system, Falun Dafa reveals itself to be quite a rational and logical system. I admit it is not easily understandable at first - that is the essence of cultivation.

I had someone tell me that his problem was that he compared Zhuan Falun to the science in his Ph.D. program. I asked him if he had studied Zhuan Falun with the same attention he had given his scientific studies. He admitted he had mostly skimmed it. This doesn't work. Zhuan Falun is deeper than ordinary things, but I can demonstrate the principle with an ordinary example.

I think about those ancient people who first discussed higher mathematical systems, such as trigonometry. What must their conversation have sounded like to the outsider? Imagine two or three thousand years ago you overhear two learned men are talking animatedly about something that seems to have no relationship to the physical world around you. They are obviously excited, waiving their hands in the air. They have discovered a relationship, they say. You listen but cannot follow it, and the relationships that excite them so are unacceptable to you. They try to explain it to you, but they are forced to use examples you don't understand. They rely on constructs of higher numbers sound like nonsense and unrelated to anything visible to the eye or touchable by the hand. They are weird; perhaps they are insane. They are so excited by this crazy talk.

Actually, they have broken into a new realm of human knowledge, broken down a barrier, opened a new dimension of learning. Each mathematical revolution leads to further ones, each advance seemingly more profound and ordered, yet less and less relatable to the tangible world. The two can try to teach you, but it won't be easy or fast. How willing are you? To try to push something so strange and new into your mind takes pain and difficulty to do it. It would be possible for them to teach you more basic mathematics until you climb to where you could to begin to understand trigonometry, but I think it would be unlikely for one to be indoctrinated into that world under those conditions. It seems to be a natural path for the mathematician. And similar situations can be imagined for any branch of science, philosophy or other human understanding.

Giving my personal opinion, I feel that science may be reaching its limits for understanding things with the methodology it currently employs. I'm not saying that science isn't good or that it's wrong. But I think it has fleshed out most of the boundaries in this reality. Of course Newtonian physics works on this level. But Einstein began to show a place where it doesn't work anymore. In relativity, measurements break down. Haven't modern quantum physicists talked about timespace? Would the science of our timespace apply to another? How could it? How could our time make sense in a place where there was no time? This is all talked about in the scientific community. It is not superstition and yet it cannot be studied in the usual manner. These issues will not be revealed in a test tube or be strapped to a table to be prodded, extracted, dissected and measured. Einstein's experiments were 'thought experiments', after all. Decades of inordinately complex research had finally been able to prove these thought experiments in a way to satisfy materialistic science, but it must be obvious that these techniques will be unable to advance far into unknown areas. It was so difficult to prove phenomenon that was spelled out by the good professor. Will even more unwieldy techniques be developed to prove what is unknown or even unimagined?

Yet, it is called science and so we shake our heads in admiration with little understanding. Zhuan Falun points the way. But it is not clear on the surface. Those trig guys couldn't just hand you trigonometry - you would have really had to have worked for it. Today we would not dare to call trigonometry superstition, but would that have been true when it was new and mysterious? The trig guys knew it wasn't mysterious at all.

We believe what we see. Who would have believed in x-rays and infra red 200 years ago? Microbes 400 years ago? In 1633 Galileo came up against the Inquisition for spreading the blasphemy that contradicted... not God, but Aristotle. Galileo was pointing the way to a revolution in thinking and the institutions of the day felt threatened.

Galileo was made to recant, but the word was out and the telescope was here to stay. We began to see. Since its introduction in 1610, we have been extending what we see, touch and measure through use of mechanical eyes and hands and fingers. Galileo showed the limits of the Aristotelian system and the self-serving ideology that force-fed unwieldy constructs in order to support it when observations such as sidereal movement forced it beyond its reasonable limits. Similarly, I think Einstein has shown that we are reaching the limit of what we can measure on this level of reality. Am I superstitious? Who was superstitious in 1610? I'm talking about levels of reality - he was only looking into space. Isn't it the same thing? How frightening was it for those who believed the stars to be as if painted on a curved canopy and the planets to move on some kind of cosmic clockworks? A little more than one year ago a small article appeared in my local newspaper. Scientists had managed, for the smallest moment, to make the same piece of matter materialize in two different places at the same time. How could this have been a minor item on the eighth page of the third section? This should have been headlines with trumpets! One particle of matter in two places at once! That is a revolution. That destroys Newtonian physics and demands a whole new concept of reality. It is not superstition to speak of other levels of reality. It is a materially existing phenomenon but materialistic science cannot bring a deep understanding of it. The revolution mentioned requires a new form of science. It is not a criticism of science to say that scientists know how much they do not know. But the superstition lies in blind and absolute faith that science will always provide the answers. Aren't there many basic questions in your life they haven't begun to approach? I think it is no coincidence that many quantum physicists have emerged from their studies with a new sense of spirituality. I am not talking about religion now. It was the church that ruled science in Galileo's time. They could not accept things that could not be denied by observation. Many refused to look through that telescope. Some who did declared it a trick and evil in nature. Some, however, were sparked and began to investigate a new reality. We know the telescope was not evil, but we've grown in an age that has long passed that particular barrier.

Falun Dafa practitioners have observations and experiences. They are not all explained in ordinary society. Neither are any of the above examples explained in the ordinary society of their times. Society does have some pale reflections of the things practitioners have experienced. The practitioners of Falun Dafa are not fools, they are not gullible nor are they idiots. Talk to them, you'll see. They are intelligent people, very kind, and their hearts are open. They have a wide variety of personal experiences because they come from a variety of backgrounds and histories. They are secure in what they have experienced. Have you yourself, or someone you trust, ever had an experience that just stands out from the rest of your life? It stands like a beacon in your memory over the years although perhaps it makes no sense and you cannot explain it or justify it to anyone? Yet, you know. Even if you have to isolate it and shove it aside from everything else you understand. Because you experienced that thing, you know its true. Practitioners have found something that touches their hearts, improves their minds and morals, answers their questions and reveals the truth. Falun Dafa is a telescope reaching through the last barrier.

I truly hope my comments can help everyone understand a little more about Falun Dafa. They are based on my own experience, observations and understanding. I wanted to show that the things that are being presented as mysterious or impenetrable are not that at all. What we do is very simple on the surface and social level. Falun Dafa as a practice is so approachable and open that I found it amazing from the beginning and I continue to be more and more impressed as my understanding deepens. Please do not interpret anything I've said being Dafa, they are only my own perspective. The cultivation practice of Falun Dafa is simple on the surface, but it is profound and rich underneath. This is experienced internally and it is the reason for its vast popularity and staunchness of its practitioners.

I suggest to anyone concerned not to listen to other people's rumors and not to simply accept propaganda. Find out for yourself. It is perfectly safe to do so; no one will make you uncomfortable. Read "China Falun Gong" or "Zhuan Falun" on your own and find out what we are talking about, then you can decide for yourself. It's all right to be skeptical, but you should inform yourself.